“…and the meek shall inherit the earth!” (Part 1)

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Elizabeth Welte in Freedom Fighters

“Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.” – Proverbs 16:19 (NKJV)

 

While I was crusin’ through some of my commentaries for todays’ Freedom Fighter, I began to wonder why I bothered picking this topic. It is one of The Fruits of the Spirit that I struggle with the most. From what some of these authors have said about it in the past, it looks as if they had issues with it as well. I know a lot of good Christian men who exhibit this Christian virtue so much better than the phony-baloney face I put on. I always thought America’s Keswick’s own, Robert Hayes, displayed this virtue better than anyone who pats themselves on the back after saying they keep themselves in all meekness.

 

Tame, timid, mild, bland, unambitious, retiring, weak, docile, acquiescent, repressed, suppressed, spiritless, broken, and wimpish aren’t words I woulda used to describe Robert. He constantly displayed strength under control and honored God in it. Robert knew I wasn’t a meek guy, but that didn’t stop him from treating me like one. Jesus thought meekness as such the virtue that during His Sermon on the Mount, He acknowledges those who are meek, signaling to the world that these shall share in His inheritance of the earth. Unfortunately, “Secularland” has its own “be-attitude” towards this and it could go like this… “Blessed are the strong, who can hold their own.”

 

We can see for ourselves, at least through comedy, on how “Secularland” gets the virtue of meekness all wrong. In 1979, the British comedy troupe, known as “Monty Python,” released a movie titled The Life of Brian. Even though it would be considered non-threatening by todays standards, back then, it was highly controversial. There is a scene where, because they parodied the distance, the crowd mis-hears what is said concerning the meek. The scene ends in a brawl, people are arrested, and Brian, along with his mother, choose to leave and go to something more entertaining – the stoning of a local man who is accused of blaspheming the Lord’s name just by simply stating, “We had a lovely supper and all I said was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.” So, chaos must ensue!

 

“Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.” – Matthew 5:5

 

Because this B-attitude seems to have little meaning (other than that list of synonyms in the second paragraph) to the world around us, it isn’t sincerely accepted at face value. “Secularland” has a lot of other insane virtues these days that good-hearted Christians are too busy trying to eradicate off the face of the earth. And because of that, meekness has fallen by the wayside. Now either we’re taking Jesus seriously when He says, “Blessed… happy, favored… are the meek,” or we’ve allowed the worlds’ synonyms to define how we look at meekness in our Christian walk as well. In any case, meekness is the one virtue that God has determined we must possess in order to have dominion within this family of His. Without it, are any of us even considered family? I’m doomed…

 

Now, you can sit there and be content with your gentle or humble spirit, but they are only the characteristics of meekness. Both Jews and Greeks alike had a hard time translating the word; so words like humility, gentleness, lowly, poor, and pious were used depending on the context of the words used. Scottish theologian, William Barcley, said in his remarks concerning Galatians 5:22 that meekness is “the most untranslatable of words in the New Testament.” It’s gonna be Jesus Christ who elevates this virtue of meekness beyond the mildness the world would want to a place where a person would “prefer to bear injuries rather than return them.” Take that to heart, reader!!

 

As I keep digging into this virtue of meekness the conviction of falling short, in regards to this important Fruit of the Spirit, weighs heavy upon me. I can see that I fall right in line with what “Secularland” believes about it – that I’m really a weak man if I let injury of either mind, body, or spirit go unretaliated. That the only way I’ll ever receive recognition, admiration, or reward is to be on top of the heap as I play my daily game of dog pile on the rabbit. Man, what a lie to buy into, right?

 

I’m gonna keep digging into this and the next time I join you, hopefully I’ll have stopped the self-mortification process I’m doin’ to myself. I’ll share with you a few more things on what meekness can mean in the life of a Christian, and why Matthew 5:5 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. Maybe I’ll approach this in the same way Moses approached the Burning Bush. Maybe it’ll come to me like Saul on the Road to Damacus. Maybe you’ll open your Bible and pick up on what I’m trying to put down.

 

Amen?

 

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a child of El Elyon, a son, a husband, and a father. He has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy, 11/2003. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net.

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This Week’s Verse to Memorize:“Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Hebrews 2:17-18